CD drive failure

[Teaqueen]

When I try to open the CD drive either from the drive itself or from the menue it clicks around and then gives me an error message (03) and the system locks up. Restarting unlocks the system. Strangely, if I open it with a paper clip and put in a CD it plays it and ejects normally. When I remove the CD we are back to square 1. This doesn't sound like mechanical failure so what can I do?